October 5, 2010
Not because it’s going to leave my family nearly two grand a year out of pocket. But because of the way the Conservatives have made such heavy weather of it. Really, the case for cutting child benefit for the (relatively) affluent middle classes ought to be a no-brainer. How can it possibly make sense to have a system where the government steals earners’ income through taxes and then gives a tiny sliver of it back to them with a prissy label attached saying: “This is to be spent on your children?” As if, somehow, left to their own devices, salaried parents would instead blow their wodge on Albanian donkey porn and Krispy Kreme donuts?
There are two reasons we have been brought to this sorry pass.
1. The cultural hegemony of the BBC. What’s the BBC’s reaction to this modest and perfectly sensible economy measure? The same as it is with any attempt to reduce the power of big government: to scour the land in search of middle-class parents likely to be “hit” by this assault on their inalienable right to be treated like supplicants by the government and broadcast their bleatings as “proof” that this new measure is “unjust”. And where the BBC leads, the newspapers follow. Even right wing newspapers. So long as the BBC is permitted to go on setting our cultural agenda – by forever adopting the default position “Why can’t the government do MORE to improve our lives?” this country is stuffed.
2. The abject moral cowardice of Dave Cameron and his goons. Sure it’s hard arguing the case for lower taxation and smaller government in a nation which has been sucking on the teat of the state for decades. But if the Conservatives aren’t capable of doing it, then it’s time those of us who believed in this country’s economic future switched their votes to a party that did.
Related posts:
- The majesty and usefulness of recycling captured in an exquisite hand-crafted child’s toy
- Power cuts are a much more serious problem than ‘Climate Change’
- Do the Conservatives think we’re all paedophiles too?
- Five reasons why the Conservatives deserve to lose the next election
